Reining Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) runners-up Dhaka Dynamites are upbeat ahead of their today's (Monday's) eliminator clash against Chittagong Vikings which begins at 01:30 pm at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, reports UNB.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Dynamites coach Khaled Mahmud Shujon said they are optimistic about beating the Vikings despite their poor show against the same team in the league stage.
The winners of Monday's eliminator will play in the qualifier-2 on Wednesday at the same venue and same time against the losers of the first qualifier where Rangpur Riders and Comilla Victorians will meet each other today (Monday) at 06:30 pm.
The losers of the eliminator will be eliminated from the meet.
However, Shujon admitted that they are the underdogs in the eliminator as they lost both of their league matches against the Vikings.
"Since we lost our league matches against them, we're going to play this match with the underdog tag.
But still we're confident to beat them. We should concentrate on our thinking in our own game rather than assuming about the rivals," he told reporters at the National Academy ground.
"Our top-order failed to click during the league matches against the Vikings.
If you disappoint to get runs from the top-order, you can't expect a good outcome.
Though we won a match against Sylhet Sixers in spite of losing three wickets during the power-play, you can't win all matches.
So, the important thing is to keep wicket and score runs," Shujon further said.
Dynamites lost the last BPL final against Rangpur Riders after a tremendous century of Chris Gayle.
The Riders were struggling at the start of the season, but they have found the momentum as they won all of their last six league matches in a trot.
The Dynamites coach thinks they also got the confidence back after winning the last league stage match against Khulna Titans. He believes it can make them powerful as they were at the start of the season.
"To be honest, the last win against the Titans was a relief for me, and probably it helped us get the momentum back.
I can't say whether we can play the final on February 08, but we've got the confidence back which is the most important thing to play good cricket," he added.
On the other hand, Vikings are also all set to lock horns against Dynamites.
Right-arm pacer of the Vikings Khaled Ahmed said two wins (against Dynamites) in the league stage made them confident ahead of Monday's knock-out clash.
"The Dynamites are a tough opponent, but it's not a problem for us. We defeated them twice in the league stage. So, we're confident about our game.
If we can deliver our best, we can come out victorious," Khaled said on Sunday.
While the Dynamites have some distinctive big hitters like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Keiron Pollard in their armoury, the Vikings are lacking it. Khaled said: "It's true that we don't have big hitters like them.
They'll get the extra chances for it. So, we're behind them in terms of having big hitters. But still, we're determined to have it all against the Dynamites."
Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine have been the best batsmen of the Dynamites as they accumulated 275, 255 and 234 runs respectively while Shakib also led the bowling line taking 21 wickets as well.
Along the skipper, Rubel Hossain and Sunil helped the Dynamites scalp 16 and 14 wickets respectively.
In contrast, the Vikings secured their place in the top-four play-offs mostly with the help of their batsmen.
Mushfiqur Rahim scored the highest runs for them with 418 in 12 matches featuring three fifties.
Yasir Ali and Mohammad Shahzad accompanied him with great efforts as they produced 299 and 270 runs respectively. Abu Jayed Rahi and Khaled Ahmed were the main bowlers for them taking 18 and 14 wickets respectively.
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